Can somebody explain these blood test results to me please?

[VainVulva]

I had an antenatal appointment on Friday, bloods were taken. I'm just after getting a letter in the post saying please attend gp as soon as possible and bring the results.

FBC (blood count) Hb 10.1

What does this mean, I'm totally confused and don't want to wait until next week to find out.

You're a bit anaemic.

According to Google, normal haemoglobin levels are between 11 and 13.

Oh ok thanks. So I presume that is not something to overly worry about. I'm just after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes and it feels like everything is starting to go wrong,

You are slightly anaemic. Your GP will probably prescribe an iron supplement to help bring your haemaglobin (Hb) up into the normal range. This is so that any blood loss in childbirth has less of an impact.
Don't worry about it; the majority of women of child-bearing age tend to be borderline anaemic due to menstrual loss, and this can be exacerbated in pregnancy as your blood volume increases and your red blood cells (where the haemaglobin is found) take a while to catch up so you end up a bit diluted. People often find iron supplements constipating though, so if you are put on them make sure you're keeping hydrated and eating plenty of fibre-rich foods.

Im on iron tablets for a low ferritin (iron stores). My HB is fine. I found ferrous sulphate a pain to take as it has to be taken 3 times a day and you cant take it with any dairy, tea, wholegrains. Its best for absorption to be taken with a glass of orange and I have the orange with bits rather than smooth as the bits help with constipation. I had really bad headaches and felt even more exhausted with ferrous sulphate so GP changed me onto ferrous fumarate which is once a day, which is much more manageable than 3 times a day! Take the tablet an hour before any dairy etc or if you do have a cup of tea leave it 2 hours before you take the tablet or it wont absorb. Only 10% of the iron absorbs without orange (vit c) and 20% with. The rest is excreted in your black poo! Nice!

Ive been on them for months pre pregnancy so had a lot of time to research it all. Cant wait to get off them!

I wouldn't panic- my iron levels were around that at 28 weeks and was prescribed ferrous fumerate (i think) tablets. They didn't make me constipated but got my iron levels up to a better level fairly quickly.

Glad I took them though because I lost a lot of blood after delivery and iron levels were then

Anaemia is common in pregnancy - don't worry - it just may make you more tired. As the above people have said you will prob just get iron tablets.

I'd also recommend floradix which you can buy from boots. I'm taking this with iron tablets. Had bloods done earlier this week (36 week appointment ) and my levels are back up where they should be again, which is good as I want a home birth.